The government corporation has become a familiar device of public administration all over the world; and yet in some countries, and especially in the United States, uncertainty as to its distinctive purpose and underlying principles seems to grow, rather than to diminish, as the public corporation becomes older and more extensively used. Lack of interest and research cannot be blamed, because in recent years the degree of concentration in this area has probably been relatively as great as in any other sphere of political science. The basic explanation is that administrative formulas and management principles are rarely, if ever, capable of immunization against group pressures and public policy controls, which bend administration to their own designs, sometimes in conformity with what the impartial experts consider sound principle and practice, but just as often in knowing disregard of such considerations and in a determined effort to support their own interests and economic viewpoints.

Recent observers have offered evidence that social and economic change is coming to the South more rapidly than to other sections of the country. There can be little doubt in the minds of those who know the region that TVA has played a prominent part in effecting the transformation. The effect of the operations and activities of TVA has been quite as marked upon the governments as upon the society and economy of the region.

We should not lose sight of the fact that TVA has had substantial effect upon government throughout the country, and indeed throughout the world. This effect is not restricted to its power, engineering, and atomic energy achievements. TVA's resource-use activities, while designed primarily for the Valley region, are in many respects transferable to other areas. For present purposes, however, we are concerned only with the effect of TVA on Southern governments.

Much has been written about TVA, and especially about its “grass roots” approach to the problems entrusted to its stewardship. The writings of Clapp, Durisch, Lilienthal, and Satterfield have copiously documented this aspect of the Authority's influence upon the nation's governmental establishments. There yet remains, however, the task of a forthright assessment of the effect of TVA upon governmental institutions and processes. What changes have come to Valley governments which might not have come had there been no TVA? What are those governments now, in matters of structure, program, techniques, competence, vision, and relationships, that they might not have become if the great Valley experiment had never been undertaken?

After the North Atlantic Treaty. The North Atlantic treaty, with its incorporation of the principle that attack on any one of the signatory powers will be considered an attack on all, has done more than any previous measure to strengthen the morale of Western Europe. No longer need any of the participating European countries, whether big or small, be afraid that it might be left alone in the hour of attack. Against that hour, if it should have to come, all will prepare in common.

On the other hand, it is obvious that this firm expression of the “will to defend” has gravely accentuated the dividing line between East and West. More definitely than ever, outside of the two World Wars, Europe has now realigned herself in two antagonistic camps, both heavily armed. This fact will receive further emphasis in the process of implementing the treaty. Each one of the many particular measures that will now be taken to organize and strengthen the common defense, and the concomitant increase in expenditures for armament—much more noticeable in democracies with their public discussion of all military and budgetary issues than in the silent realms of dictatorial censorship—will have the effect of a showing of teeth and rattling of sabers.

Historians and political scientists are frequently handicapped in analyzing the contemporary scene, or a recent period, by lack of documentary evidence. The Pacific war, however, has created a unique situation regarding Japanese political and economic documents giving authoritative evidence of Japanese affairs during the two decades prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor. As a result of military defeat, the Japanese government and people have been forced to submit to the occupation authorities thousands of documents which otherwise might never have been made available for research purposes. The total sum of this material is so great that significant research work is now possible in many fields of recent Japanese government, politics, and diplomacy.

Soon after the beginning of the occupation, military teams were assigned the task of collecting documents. Their instructions were broad, and their haul was unbelievable. A large part of what they, and other agencies, have accumulated is still in the hands of the occupation forces, but two categories of materials are already available for private research: the documents assembled for the International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE) and the Japanese Army and Navy department files which have been deposited in the National Archives in Washington, D.C. In this paper, an attempt will be made to survey the nature and scope of the first category: the IMTFE materials.